FORA not expected to adopt 'guiding principles'

The so-called guiding principles that would have limited land-use authority on Fort Ord are near death.

The proposed guidelines for base reuse, written by staff members of the land-holding jurisdictions, will be discussed at an upcoming workshop on implementing the base reuse plan's reassessment.

But Del Rey Oaks Mayor Jerry Edelen, newly elected chairman of the Fort Ord Reuse Authority board of directors, said he does not expect a vote to adopt them as policy.

Spearheaded by Carl Holm, deputy director of the Monterey County Resource Management Agency, the guidelines were proposed for the FORA board to follow as it implements suggested options in the reassessment of the 1997 base reuse plan.

One of the principles would have limited land-use decisions on the FORA board to the jurisdictions that hold land there, excluding Carmel, Pacific Grove, Salinas and Sand City.

The principles were adopted by all of the land-use jurisdictions except Monterey, which has not yet voted. They were adopted by the Board of Supervisors on a 4-1 vote, with Jane Parker dissenting. Then-FORA chairman Supervisor Dave Potter, who represents Carmel and Carmel Valley, told the board the guidelines were consistent with the reassessment report and he supported them.

Because they were presented on the consent agenda, Supervisor Lou Calcagno, who represents North Salinas, said he failed to recognize the significance of the measure. He said last week he wants the measure revisited.

From Edelen's standpoint, that may not be necessary. Describing them as a "self-inflicted wound," the mayor said the guidelines were a well-intentioned but ill-advised emotional reaction by some city and county staff members to an increasingly vocal element that opposes development on Fort Ord, particularly Keep Fort Ord Wild.

However, Edelen said, the effect was to leave the cities without land feeling like they had been attacked. The only mention of the guidelines at FORA's meeting Friday came at the end of the evening when Carmel Mayor Jason Burnett asked, what did we do wrong?

Edelen said he has come to respect the hard work that representatives from Carmel, Pacific Grove, Sand City and Salinas put in at FORA.

"For us to negate their influence which has been totally positive would be the absolutely worst thing we could do right now," he said. "The schism is between the extremists who want no development whatsoever and the land-use jurisdictions that want moderate development."

One of the reasons the expected firestorm over the guidelines fizzled at Friday's meeting may have been the decision to move the public comment time to the end of the agenda. While the guidelines were in the packet, they were not on the agenda, so the only opportunity for the public to speak came after 6 p.m.

Monterey City Councilwoman Nancy Selfridge said the decision to move the comment time was made because of criticisms over how long the FORA meetings run, but she questioned whether it's not disenfranchising the public.

If nothing else, it inconvenienced Monterey City Councilwoman Libby Downey, who attended to speak on what turned out to be the most controversial item on the agenda, the election of officers.

When then-Chairman Dave Potter refused to open the item for public comment when it was voted on by the board, Downey was forced to wait for the end of the meeting. Downey objected to the fact that Sand City Mayor David Pendergrass was on the committee that nominated him to serve his fourth term as the "at large" member of the executive committee, which sets the monthly agendas.

Others objected that newly elected Seaside Mayor Ralph Rubio was nominated as second vice-chairman, passing over board members who had served longer and never been elected officer.

Environmental attorney Jane Haines said FORA policies allow an officer to serve a maximum of two terms and require the officers' positions to rotate. FORA counsel Jerry Bowden said policy didn't apply to Pendergrass because he was not an officer. Edelen reasoned that Rubio's nomination made sense because former Mayor Felix Bachofner had represented Seaside on the executive committee and a vote for Supervisor Jane Parker, who nominated herself, would give the county two representatives on the committee.

Parker and Burnett, who was nominated as the at-large representative, were defeated on 8-5 votes. The representatives are considered two of the more progressive FORA directors.

On Monday, Libby questioned why Potter refused to open the nomination issue to public comment, saying it's the first time she has seen it happen in an open meeting. She asked for an explanation at the end of the meeting, she said, but was refused one by Bowden and told by Edelen that the staff would investigate the issue.

It is the second time in a month that the outgoing chairman called for a vote on an agenda item without first taking public comment.

At the December meeting, Potter called for the vote to accept the final reassessment report without opening the matter to public comment. Keep Fort Ord Wild spokesman Michael Salerno said numerous people, including him, were present to object that the report did not adequately address the issue of water supplies in the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin.

One of the now-dormant guiding principles calls on the board to monitor, but not re-evaluate the health of that basin.